[Snapppy]

I get it, some of you like to baby your cameras, leave the screen protectors on until the day you sell it, store it in it's box and never take it outside (okay that last one was a joke).

However, some of you are like me and are so fixated on getting the shot, that sometimes your camera takes a hit, or a splash, or came really close to getting crushed. I want to hear your confessions of your worst camera abuse. Share any pics if you have any. I'll start.

These are just the first few that came to the top of my head and I could find pictures of.

1. I was out with friends going on a hike when an unexpected snowstorm hit and left us stranded (car wouldn't go up the hill, and wouldn't go down the hill). So, we pulled off the side of the road and started playing in the snow. We found a pretty creek and I got my camera out to take pictures. I tried to keep it dry, I really did, but at some point I just had to let it go so I could get the shots I wanted. I trusted in the WR and Pentax really pulled through for me on it. I shared it with some other photographers and they said it made them nervous just looking at it

2. I got hit with a wave shortly after this picture of me was taken. I was trying to get a seashell right when the wave was about to hit it and timed it poorly... Camera was okay, lens was okay. It wasn't a complete dousing, just a splash. Was worried about the salt more than anything.

3. Nothing bad happened here, just what could have happened. I was trying to get a shot from a really high angle and improvised to make a 12ft monopod using a pool brush and an old tripod head. Like I said, nothing bad happened in the end, but looking at the pictures now makes me nervous.

Alright, you're up. Let's see what you got.

[Paul the Sunman]

My son was very hard on my K5 and K3, but they still work well (apart from a somewhat sticky and stiff on-off switch acquired in the Borneo jungles). The K3 also spent a lot of time underwater in a diving bag whilst scuba diving, without ill-effects. However, the worst episode was when he left the K3 on a beach and didn't notice till he got home. Thankfully, someone found it, went through the menu and found his copyright name, and contacted him through facebook (it helps to have a unique name). Recovered at the cost of a slab of beer.

He has his own D850 now.

[blues_hawk]

My most traumatic experience with my K-50 was having it somehow escape the bottom screw clipon AND the safety tether just as I was about to fall off a 10ft cliff into a river. I watched in horror as it rolled in the sand toward the edge and lunged for it. Neither of us went over the edge but I was really worried about sand getting in places only sand can get in. I carefully brushed the case off cursing the thing and vowing to buy something that would actually ^%*%$% tether if it died. It was and is fine. Pentax... it takes a licki...oh wait that's copyrighted. Pentax's sealed frame and lens saved the day.

[Sandy Hancock]

Some might call this abuse. I would call it appropriate use.

Making full use of the WR/AW sealing. In a Zodiac inflatable dinghy. On the open sea. In Antarctica. In a blizzard.


The Pentax advantage

[Kiwizinho]

My first camera was a Cosina Pentax mount. It died when I tried to jump a creek and slipped or dropped the camera bag or something, and it hit a rock, cracking a big hole in the pentaprism housing. The lens survived, so I went and bought a Pentax P-50 which was my first true Pentax. That was way back in 1990.
More recently, just a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn't actually call it abuse, but perhaps a little risky, I was trying to photograph some moths on a tree with my D-FA 100 macro, on my K-70, but they were just a bit far away, and there was a bit of a steep gully between me and them. I tried balancing on a small tree stump, but decided that wasn't stable enough, and was likely to end up doing a face plant with camera in the creek.
There was a foot bridge over the creek, so my plan B was to attach my camera to the end of my tripod, hold onto the tripod feet, and balance the tripod on the bridge handrail, with the camera and rest of the tripod leaning out over the gully using the legs of the tripod as a lever, using the wifi app on my phone to check focus and trigger the shutter. I know it sounds pretty crazy, but I was actually reasonably confident I wasn't going to drop anything, and I actually got the photo I wanted.

[AggieDad]

Oh, where do I start?

Two that come to mind have to do with sand and both occurred on the Texas Gulf Coast.

1. Every once in a while I head out to the flats to capture shore birds. This is done on my belly using a groundpod and my Sigma 15--500 lens on the K-3II. One day was particularly hazy and moist. When I returned to the cottage, I discovered how much the camera and lens were covered with a coating of damp sand. I had to let the sand dry before removing it with a brush, Q-tips, and alcohol wipes. Somehow everything survived.
   
   
   After a morning in sand on our bellies. I am third from left.
   
   
2. Another beach story found me changing lenses (really!) on a windy beach so I could get a better picture of something (I can't remember what). I wasn't even thinking and really didn't realize what I was doing until another photographer mentioned to me I was a lot braver than he was. I got lucky and no problems occurred.

But perhaps my most egregious crime against my Pentax is simply the images I produce with a camera that is capable of absolutely stunning results.

[blues_hawk]

The second worst thing I've done was with my K5 while mounted on a Newtonian telescope waiting for me to get around to using it(and skies to stabilize). I was watching some movie or anime or something and heard a noise that sounded like rain. ... it was rain, and hard..Virginia hard. I ran out the door, ripped the cover off the gas grill on the porch and ran to cover the mount and scope with it. The next morning I started surveying the damage. An ASI120c-s full of water, the mount had water in the motor bay and The SCT corrector looked like a glass bottom boat in a swamp...inside. The K5 was wet and I was really worried water had gotten inside since the side bay must be open to use the dc supply and tether it. Everything's still working after drying procedures so I guess I got lucky.

[Sandy Hancock]

And this was taken with me in chest deep water with the FA31 Limited....


Give....

[Ray Cox]

The Pentax 645D is one tough camera. I was photographing in the snow while standing in the middle of a creek to get an unusual perspective. Unfortunately I slipped and went through the ice, taking the camera into the ice water with me. I came up wet and covered in black silt. My phone was ruined, the camera covered in silt. I walked half a mile soaking wet and freezing to my vehicle and headed to the nearest water and rinsed the camera off. No damage, images fine. A month later I was leaving to go out for another shoot, picked the camera bag up off of the kitchen table and as it swung down I found that the bag was not zipped. The camera and FA120 hit the floor, rolled, and then went down 5 steps. Ouch! Both are Ok and I am still using the camera!

[Bruce Clark]

Worst damage was from over tightening a tripod mounting screw on my old faithful Ricoh XRP. While turned to portrait orientation, there was little friction preventing the camera from drooping downwards under a heavy lens. Tighten a bit more and a bit more and a bit more until a slight "crack" was heard. Fortunately despite some distortion and visible hairline cracks emanating from the tripod mounting socket, no other harm was evident.

[Alex645]

Late '80s: Four Minolta 35mm SLRs and six lenses stolen. The miracle was that the thief left my Pentax 645 and three primes untouched. But I was working on a movie that was going to shut down an LA freeway that night and I needed 35mm gear. Minolta had pro support back then and they generously lent me their top end Maxxum 9000 with a 600mm Rokkor telephoto.

I arrived on the film set (the freeway) with the big lens and a Maxxum 9000 all attached to a monopod.....via a cheap quick release plate. (See where this is headed?) With the monopod on my shoulder, the quick release couldn't hold the weight and the camera fell about five feet to the asphalt and split in half from the weight of the lens (the back hit the pavement). The lens survived except the massive filter cracked like a spider's web.

The next day I returned the broken gear to Minolta and my embarrassment and shame turned to amusement and relief when instead of scolding me, they wanted to know the details and physics of an accident that would split the all metal chassis in half. I even had the audacity to ask them for replacement gear and they obliged.

[BigMackCam]

I once mounted a Ricoh Riconar 55mm f/2.2 lens on my K-5. The image quality was so dreadful that it undoubtedly qualifies as abuse

Ricoh Riconar 55mm F2.2, anyone? - PentaxForums.com

[Sandy Hancock]

I once mounted a Ricoh Riconar 55mm f/2.2 lens on my K-5. The image quality was so dreadful that it undoubtedly qualifies as abuse

OMG, my eyes are bleeding!

[veato]

Nothing particularly bad but on old metal bodied lens once rattled around in my camera bag and scratched the perfect paintwork of my still relatively new K5.

[roberrl]

As I wandered around in Tokyo looking for second-hand camera shops my Q7 parted company with my neck sling (still don't know how) and there was an ugly camera to pavement interaction.
The lens was fine and the body kinda worked afterwards but it is prone to spontaneously powering off; usually at the most inconvenient time.